25 February 2010

"Permanent" Records Storage?

Last night, an esteemed colleague in data security used the phrase "persistent storage". This struck me as a useful description for retention that has otherwise been described as "permanent". The word "persistent" connotes an ongoing nature without definite termination. It seems more appropriate since nothing is truly permanent.

The earliest writings we have are 5,000 year old cuneiforms. That's about half the lifecycle necessary for inventory records of spent fuel rods at our nuclear power plants (and 10,000 years is just the half-life, after which the rods still emit dangerous radiation.)

Call a 10,000 year lifecycle "permanent" storage if you like. For anything shorter, I prefer the word "persistent".

Your thoughts?

2 comments:

  1. Good Article. Thanks for discussing about the permanent records storage. What I liked is the way of writing the article. You explained the complete things in very small description.

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  2. I totally agree there are many type of storage but I think that this division is the most accurate..

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